Saturday 10 January 2009

Will we never see trials like Karen Matthews' televised? Government refbuffs DPP on letting cameras into the courtroom

Disappointing that Government ministers appear to have given such a cool reception to the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer's view, in a briefing to journalists, that he was in favour of criminal court cases being televised.
According to the BBC, Government ministers are not convinced about letting cameras into court and have no plans to change the rules.
This argument seem to have been going on for years. I used to cover Crown Court and believe nothing beats it for drama. Also I think justice should be seen to be done (by as many people as possible) and the courts should open up to a multi-media world.
I, and I suspect much of the public, would liked to have seen the Karen Matthews trial televised.
The argument against televising court is that defendants and witnesses will "act up" for the cameras. But Karen Matthews didn't need a courtroom to act up for the cameras, as her tearful appeals for "missing" Shannon showed.

1 comment:

Lalalaura said...

The very idea of watching the case on TV is too wonderful - can it be that government ministers are simply worried about the drop in EastEnders viewing figures that sanctioning a televised Karen Matthews trial would inevitably cause?